Just Like Kids
by Anteyra
Summary: After a visit to a previously unexplored inhabited planet, the away team begins to experience child-like behaviour. Chapter 10 up, COMPLETE!
1. Happy As Can Be

Just Like Kids

The docking arm lowered and clamped onto the roof of the shuttlepod, guiding it safely into the launch bay. The doors closed and air was pumped into the room; twenty one percent oxygen, seventy nine percent nitrogen, a breathable atmosphere for all eighty four crew members on board the NX-01 _Enterprise. _

After checking that all systems in the pod were shut down the away team disembarked, exiting through the side hatch. Trip was first out, soon followed by John, then Malcolm and lastly Hoshi.

"I don't think I've ever had as much fun before." Trip had a grin on his face. "Those people are really nice… what are they called, again?" He queried, glancing at the dark hair linguist, his mind having forgotten the name of the aliens.

Hoshi sighed and shook her head. "Aurellians." She repeated.

"Despite their very Klingon look about them." Malcolm commented. He never cared much for Klingons, not many of the crew did, the violent, disgusting, hostile species that they were. "I had half expected to find myself in a fight with them."

John gave a short laugh. "At least they eat proper food… dead, cooked food."

"Now that is a bonus." Trip said, pointing a finger at the captain's very true statement.

Aurellians were distantly related to the Klingons, they had the same appearance, cranial ridges that varied between each individual. But they were no where near as hostile and warrior like as their brothers.

The four of them headed to de-con for the standard scanning of harmful foreign microbes and bacteria, John stopping at a command panel for a brief second, pressing the white button. "Archer to the Bridge, take us out of orbit."

After a very short pause there was a reply from the helsman. "Aye sir. Heading?"

"Wherever you feel like, Travis." He replied and followed the rest of the team.

They stripped down to their skivvies and entered the room. Being the only girl in the group, Hoshi was a little shy of undressing in front of three higher ranked male officers who where also stripping down to the standard blue skivvies. The bright blue light flashed on and the temperature rose several degrees.

"Who knew that you could celebrate for so long and not get tired?" Trip sighed, rubbing his eyes slightly and tried to stifle a yawn.

"If you ask me…" Malcolm began, turning to look at Trip. "They should spend more time perfecting their aim than having fun." This received a couple of sighs from Trip and John, who were about to say something before Reed continued. "Not one of them managed to hit me with a wet sponge."

"And yet they managed to get us." Trip stated, placing his hands on his waist after indicated Hoshi, John and himself.

"You weren't even trying. The objective was to avoid being hit."

Hoshi sighed. "It was too hot… that water was nice and refreshing. No wonder you had more to drink than us."

Malcolm could see he was going nowhere with the conversation, but tried to keep going nevertheless. "Heat had nothing to do with… I just liked it."

"Sure you weren't just trying to impress the young woman… what was her name? Leonal?" Trip pressed, trying to get to the bottom of Malcolm's deepest secrets.

"I won't deny that she was beautiful, despite the cranial ridges."

"Ah ha! I knew it!" Trip pointed at the Armoury officer.

"But a species who do not have great weapon systems is not my type." Malcolm continued

Archer sighed slightly and looked at Hoshi. He would have to spend the next hour or so listening to his two closest friends bantering and arguing about the Aurellians and love life. It was true, he had found a few of the women attractive, and their lifestyle and customs had proved quite fascinating to both him and Hoshi. It was obvious that Trip's mind was clearly on love and fun, whilst Malcolm was the opposite; All work and no play makes the Armoury officer a happy man.

"Why don't the two of you just agree to disagree?" The captain suggested, hoping to keep his sanity.

"C'mon Cap'n… you know that ain't no fun!" Trip smiled and both he and John laughed slightly. Malcolm sighed in defeat as they began to apply de-con gel B all over their bodies, helping with each other's backs.

It was a while before the four of them were back on duty. A microbe had been brought back with them, but with Phlox's slimy gel it had been neutralised.

Archer was just resting in his ready room, reading a book; 'Octopussy'. All about a British spy in the twentieth century. He'd heard a couple of other crewmen talk about James Bond and had decided to check him out for himself, and so far he was quite enjoying it.

Malcolm was happily making sure that all tactical systems were online and in perfect working order, ready in case the ship encountered a sudden unprovoked attack. You never knew who you were going to meet in the dark, endless ocean of space. His eyes glanced up and over to Hoshi every now and then, watching her for a couple of seconds, watching her slender fingers run over the console in front of her.. Each time he couldn't help but smile at her, but he couldn't explain why. Did he have a crush on the Japanese woman? He soon found he was beginning to find it hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Here he was sitting at his desk, with a beautiful woman sitting opposite, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Tapping the buttons lightly with the tips of her fingers, she kept getting the feeling that someone was watching her, bu when she did look up, no one was looking in her direction.

The chief engineer busied himself in engineering, making sure the duty roster was up to date, keeping his eyes on the warp core, and giving the maintenance crew their orders with a few odd jobs of fixing things around the ship. Naturally Trip couldn't stop thinking about the three days he had spent on Aurel. He had originally gone down to help fix some machinery, and soon the invitation to stay longer cropped up, and he just couldn't say 'no', forcing him into a situation to force Archer to remain and get a sense of what the planet was like

Eventually the night shift took over the duties and the away team could get some well deserved rest, sleeping soundly in their rooms, Archer sleeping with his trusty beagle by his side.


	2. The Next Morning

In the morning the turbolift doors swooshed open and a young man walked onto the bridge

In the morning the turbolift doors swooshed open and a young man walked onto the bridge. His facial features resembled that of their bold and adventurous captain, but he looked too young. T'Pol glanced at the man curiously. "Can I help you?" She enquired, remaining at her station, perplexed by the man's appearance. She had never seen him before.

"I don't need any Help, T'Pol." He replied, the voice sounding all too familiar… It was the Captain's voice, far too unmistakable. The Vulcan looked at him, confused, Travis swivelling round in his chair to find out what was going on.

"Captain?" T'Pol looked hard at him, trying to understand what was going on.

"What's wrong T'Pol? Is there a bit of marmalade still on my face?" he wiped a hand across his face to find out if there was, but upon inspection of his hand, he found nothing, no stickiness either.

"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror this morning?" The young helmsman asked, noticing how uneasy T'Pol seemed to be acting.

He shook his head. "I haven't had a chance to, I woke up late. So it's my hair then?" He began to try and flatten his slightly sticking up hair.

"It's not your hair, sir." She replied with a slight shake of her head. "You'd best follow me." She added and led the young man into the ready room. Turning on the computer screen and activating the camera so he could see himself.

He gazed shocked. "What the hell!?" He cried out. He was younger. About ten years younger. He glanced at T'Pol, confusion written all over his face. "How?"

T'Pol blinked, unfazed by Archer's raised voice and shouting. "I do not know. I will carry out tests to try and determine what has happened… with your permission."

"Do it." He said sharply and left the small ready room. As he returned to the bridge he froze. Trip, Malcolm and Hoshi stood before him, all looking younger, like himself.

"Cap'n! What the hell's happening to us!?" Trip nearly yelled. He was quite happy the age he should be…. About thirty years old… but now he looked more like twenty three, the same with Malcolm. And Hoshi… the twenty six year old now looked more like eighteen. As for Archer… he should be about forty two… but he looked more like thirty.

"I don't know… T'Pol's only just told me about myself… Could there be a virus on board?" He speculated

"A virus would affect all crew members, would it not?" Hoshi sighed, her arms folded in front of her chest.

"How about an intruder? Injecting people with some sort of anti-ageing… thing?" Trip suggested. That would explain more why so far only four of the crew were reported to have… regressed.

"No." Malcolm shook his head. "An intruder would have triggered the alarm systems… we'd have been notified almost immediately. And the system was at full working order when I checked it yesterday."

Trip looked at him. "Someone could'a tampered with it… or just be some alien with sophisticated technology to avoid being detected… Like the Suliban." He placed his hands on his hips.

"Why would the Suliban do this to us?" Malcolm sighed, almost instantly regretting any answer that may come his way from anyone.

The engineer let his arms drop then extended a hand out towards him, the palm upwards. "Because they hate our guts?"

With thumb ad forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose his frustration got the better of him. "Enough!" John looked between his officers, releasing the pressure on his face. "We'll find a solution." He looked at Travis. "Continue on our current course."

Travis nodded. "Aye sir."

"May I suggest that you all report to Doctor Phlox, immediately?" T'Pol stepped closer to the quartet. "He may be able to provide you with some answers." Her suggestion was only received by a round of nods.

"I can't find anything wrong with any of you." Phlox said after hours of testing and scanning.

Jumping off the biobed he strode over to the doctor. "There has got to be some sort of explanation!" Archer nearly yelled. He was beginning to loose his patience, having been kept waiting for three hours only to hear those words from the Denobulan. "This isn't normal!"

"I didn't say that there wasn't anything wrong… I just can't find anything wrong… something my medical scanner can't detect most likely." Phlox said, hoping to calm the captain down a little.

"What are we supposed to do?" Trip asked. "I've got diagnostics to run on the engine… I can't stay here!"

Phlox shook his head, looked at the floor for a second before looking at Trip, stepping towards him. "I'm sorry, Commander, but until I have established what the cause is for this… Mutation, the four of you will have to remain here in sickbay." Trip was about to protest. He didn't want to be cooped up in sickbay with the menagerie of pets Phlox had. "Ah, doctor's orders, Commander." The physician stopped him

The engineer looked at John who only sighed and nodded his head. The doctor outranked everybody, including the Captain.

Raising his head he looked around. "Where's Malcolm and Hoshi?" He queried, causing both Trip and Phlox to become aware that two people were missing… Not good news.


	3. Uh Oh!

There was a hard thud as her back made contact with the wall of her quarters, vibrations making a couple of things on shelves move slightly

There was a hard thud as her back made contact with the wall of her quarters, vibrations making a couple of things on shelves move slightly. The hormones from the pair were running wild due to the strange regression back to childhood.

Malcolm and Hoshi were madly in love.

His hands gripped her wrists, pinning them to the wall as he kissed the young woman passionately, pressing his bare chest up close to her's.

"This is wrong, Lieutenant." She moaned, kissing him back.

"Malcolm… Call me Malcolm." He whispered. His lips moved to her neck, kissing the soft, warm skin tenderly.

"This is wrong, Malcolm." She repeated, trying to keep her breathing under control, but her heart was all a flutter, making it difficult. "We're Starfleet officers… you're a superior officer." She leaned her head back, exposing more neck for him, not giving any resistance to his wandering hands.

His eyes looked at her and he shrugged slightly. "Do you care?" His eyes were full of want and mischievous. This younger Malcolm was so much more confident around women than he usually was… or maybe it was just Hoshi that made him feel like that.

She grinned and shook her head. "Not really." They kissed more before she leaned her head back, gasping as the young Englishman began to make her feel like no other man had. Her arms wrapping around his neck.

All of this had been going on for an hour before the others in sickbay had realised they were gone, and sixty minutes was plenty of time for two frisky hormonal people to get up to a lot.

A security team found them an hour after the search had begun, and the pair had been located fast asleep in the catwalk, dressed in civilian clothing. Without waking them, Hoshi and Malcolm were carried back to sickbay. As the team entered John and Trip exchanged glances.

"I don't think I wanna know what they've been up to and where." Trip's face showed disgust, perhaps in slight jealously. Who knew? But with these strange hormones running loose on them all, he could well be having deep feelings for the linguist. Or annoyed that he hadn't had the chance to let loose his wild side on a woman.

John sighed and stared at them. "Trip… Are they getting even younger?"

Trip slid off his biobed and strode over to the sleeping pair. He blinked his eyes as he watched their features and bodies slowly grow younger and smaller. "Yeah! They are!" He paused for a second and looked at John, "Are we?"

The captain watched his chief engineer before shaking his head. "I don't think so."

"Better warn Phlox." He sighed and looked at Malcolm and Hoshi again. The young woman now looked like fifteen, the same with the man. Trip yawned widely, causing John to do the same, yawning was always so contagious. After a few more seconds and several more yawns, the two returned to their beds and fell asleep.

Phlox took scans of the sleeping children he now had in sickbay, but there was still no reason that he could find as to why this was happening. He could only smile slightly at the Captain, who was sleeping on the floor after having fallen off and never woke up. It was all fascinating to him… something was definitely affecting them, but what exactly was anyone's guess. A Medical problem he just could not solve at the moment. He'd run every test he could think of, but each test turned up negative.

No virus or bacteria. No chemical that would cause the symptoms. Maybe it was all just a dream and he'd wake from it soon enough.

A piece of cheese he was holding in his hand was soon snatched from him as Porthos jumped up accidentally biting Phlox in the process, and gobbled the dairy product up. "Ow!" He flinched his hand back. Bang went the theory of a dream… dreams never hurt. "Porthos." He sighed and only received a bark as an answer. "No, I don' have any more cheese for you." The canine whimpered slightly, he just loved his cheese. "Later."

Hoshi, Malcolm and Trip were now at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and Captain Archer was down to the age of twenty, and boy was he a very handsome young man at that age.

It had become obvious that each regression took place when they were asleep, but still no cause. Perhaps Trip theory was right. Maybe there was an intruder on board and whatever substance they were being injected with had gone from the system by the time the scans were taken…. No… Trip's theories were always too wild and imaginative, there had to be a simpler reason. There just had to be.

Shifting on the biobeds cause Phlox to stop looking at the screen and turned to his patients. "Glad to see you're all awake." He smiled slightly. "How are you feeling?"

Hoshi, Trip and Malcolm stared at each other, curiously, as if they had never met each other before.

John rose to his feet and moved to Phlox. "Do they seem a bit…. Forgetful to you?" He whispered, he eyes looking between his friends and the doctor.

"Who are you?" The trio questioned in unison, pointing at each other.

"And where are we?" Hoshi added, looking around.

John and Phlox just stared at each other. Oh great! Their memories were going. "We have got to find out what is wrong before it's too late."

"I couldn't agree more captain." Phlox nodded.

"Captain?" John looked at Phlox puzzled.

_Not you too_… Phlox thought, shock filling his face.

John instantly began to laugh at seeing his doctor's expression. "I'm kidding Phlox!" He patted Phlox's shoulder, a relieved sigh coming from the Denobulan. He knew he was in for a rough ride with these four.


	4. Getting Younger

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys, they are really appreciated

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys, they are really appreciated. Well… on with the fun…**

T'Pol casually walked into sickbay followed by Travis and a member of security. In their hands they carried trays filled with food for the youngsters and Phlox. All three nearly got knocked over by Trip and Malcolm running around sickbay. The eight year old engineer was chasing the Armoury officer, and both were shouting their heads off.

"Give it back, right this minute, Malcolm!" Trip shouted, pouncing for his 'friend' but missed and landed heavily on the floor close to T'Pol's feet. His eyes looked at Malcolm and he glared at him.

"Why?" Malcolm called over and giggled at the fact that Trip couldn't catch him, no matter how hard the boy tried.

"Because it's mine! John gave it to me, not you!" He got back to his feet and the chase started again.

The three visitors put the trays down before anything was spilt and the Vulcan moved to Phlox. "I see no point in asking how things are going here."

"T'Pol, I'm glad you're here." He sighed, his eyes watching the boys. "I'm not fit enough to go around chasing them." It was obvious by his breathing that he had tried to, but had given up.

"Allow me then, Doctor." The security guy, Ensign Peter Watson, said and as Malcolm came running passed him he reached out and grabbed him, holding him back.

"Let go of me!" Malcolm shouted and wriggled. "Get your hands off me!" He began to kick and scream in an attempt to break free, but Peter was too strong, and the grip remained. Peter did his best to not laugh… if they ever managed to return the four of them back to normal and Malcolm had any recollection of this... Well… Peter may find he had good leverage for blackmail.

Trip stopped running and came over to them. "Please give me toy back." He asked nicely. He' asked nicely the first time, but that was before there were other adults around, and this time Malcolm had no other choice.

Seeing that the security officer would not be letting go of him until the toy was returned, he passed the ship and controls back to Trip. It was certainly obvious that in his youth Malcolm was quite the rebel; first sneaking off with Hoshi under orders of remaining in sickbay, and now taking toys.

"Thank you, Malcolm." He put the vessel on the floor and activated the controls, making it fly up into the air and hover around.

Phlox looked and Peter and nodded slightly with a smile. "Thank you Ensign."

"Not a problem, Doctor." The dark haired man replied, letting go of Malcolm, who just remained close to him, watching Trip playing with the ship.

"Where are Hoshi and John?" Travis queried, surprised he hadn't seen them.

"Doing the sensible thing, staying away from the chase. It's all right now! You can come out!" Phlox called. The thunder of feet alerted them that Hoshi and John were moving.

"Travis!" Hoshi, now looking around six years old, smiled and ran to hug him.

The helmsman smiled and hugged her back. "Hi Hoshi. How are you?"

"I'm ok… but I wish someone would shoot him." She pointed at Malcolm. "He gets on my bloody nerves!"

"Language, Hoshi!" John gasped, putting his hands on his hips.

"I hear him saying it a lot!" She now pointed at Trip and he looked at her, loosing his concentration on the controls. The ship fell to the ground and a piece broke off.

He stared at his precious toy. "My Ship!" He gasped. "Now look what you made me do!"

"It can be mended, comma…" Peter began to speak "Trip." He corrected himself quickly, hoping he little boy hadn't heard his mistake.

"Ya broke it, Hoshi!" Trip was close to tears.

Peter moved forward and bent down to him. "Listen to me…It can be fixed… I'll take it to Lieutenant Hess and bring it right back, good as new." Trip looked at him and passed the broken toy to him. "It's a promise, Trip." He stood up and left, running out to Engineering.

"Perhaps some food will cheer you up." T'Pol said, picking up a plate and holding it out for him. They boy just shook his head and went into a corner. He just wanted his toy. T'Pol put the plate down and returned to standing next to Phlox. "Still no luck in ascertaining what the problem is?"

"None at all." He shook his head.

"Could it have been something they ate back on Aurel? They were down there for a couple of days." Travis asked as Hoshi moved off to play with John.

"But the inhabitants are unaffected." T'Pol looked at him.

"They may just have an immunity to it. It would certainly explain why I've found no trace of anything… by the time they got back to the ship it would have gone from their systems." Phlox looked at them.

T'Pol turned to face Travis but he was already heading for the door. "Change course! Got it!" He called back and left.

"Let's hope we're not too late." T'Pol said

"I'll do my best to keep them awake for as long as possible, but they are young children, they'll need sleep."

T'Pol began to head for the door. "Do whatever you can. When Ensign Watson returns, request him to remain with you… No doubt you will be requiring his help."

"I don't doubt it, Sub-Commander. Especially if they regress further… even to the point of being babies… I can't look after four on my own!" He called. He was fearing that... they were enough trouble as they were at this age. He turned and looked at them. Malcolm had moved over to Trip and was apologising, whilst Hoshi and John were just sitting together talking, playing 'rock, paper, scissors'.

With a sigh he began to hand the food out to them. Trip just put his plate on the ground next to him and as soon as Peter returned ten minutes later with the ship repaired he began to eat happily with Malcolm.


	5. Mess, Mess, Everywhere!

Trip smiled when he saw what was on his plate; chips, peas, chicken nuggets and tomato ketchup

Trip smiled when he saw what was on his plate; chips, peas, chicken nuggets and tomato ketchup. He put the toy to the side and began to eat, happily.

Things were going well and Phlox and Peter sat down to have their own meal in a bit of silence.

Young Trip was about to pop a nugget in his mouth when something suddenly struck his nose. He looked at the floor and found a piece of carrot. He looked at everyone's plates to try and find the culprit, when something else struck his ear. This time the projectile had been a mushroom, and only one person had that. Picking up a few peas he threw them at Malcolm, then threw some more peas at John who ducked out of the way just in time.

"Phlox!" Malcolm whined, pushing his plate away. "Trip's peaed on my plate!" He wailed loudly.

Phlox sat looking shocked, not turning to look at the children for fear of what he would see. "Really, Trip. Surely you could have made it to the bathroom."

"I hate peas! And they're on my plate!" Malcolm whined some more, picking them off and flicking them at Hoshi, who just glared at him

Phlox realised what the boy was saying, and Peter was trying to stifle his laughs. The Denobulan turned to look at them and a lump of mashed potato hit him on the face. The thrower had been John and he was giggling, his hand prepared to throw some more.

"Good shot, John!" Malcolm grinned, clapping slightly.

"Thanks, Malcolm." With a grin John raised his voice, his hand already full of mashed potato. "Food fight!" He declared and all four kids began to throw their food at everyone, laughing hard.

"Children! Stop it at once!" Phlox raised his voice, but the ten-year olds and Hoshi paid no attention to him.

Peter jumped up and dived for Phlox, pushing him out of the way as a carrot headed towards the doctor. "Take cover!" He shouted and got him to safety.

"I'm going to rely on you to get them to stop." Said Phlox, breathing heavily, in shock from Ensign Watson's heroic action.

"I'll try, Doctor... but the odds are against me. Four to one." He thought for a second and finally pulled out his communicator. "Watson to security, we have a priority, code one in sickbay. Request immediate backup… and bring cleaning equipment!" He put it away and waited.

Silently, Hoshi appeared behind the two adults and began lobbing mashed potato and sausages at them. The other three then surrounded them and began throwing any food they could at them. It was an ambush.

"Move!" Peter scrambled to his feet, dragging Phlox up with him, pulling him towards the door. By the time they reached it and had left sickbay they were covered in food. Bits of carrot and peas in their hair. Lumps of mashed potato and tomato ketchup staining their clothes.

"The hooligans!" Phlox pulled out a hanky from his pocket and began to wipe himself down. "And it was Trip that started it… He's a terror." He passed a spare hanky to Peter so he could begin to clean himself up.

Peter shook his head. "Trip didn't… John did, I saw him."

"Of all the people!" He should be setting an example for the others. I never thought Hoshi would attack me." He was stunned.

"They aren't quite themselves, Doctor." The two of them sighed as they waited, watching through the glass doors as they chased each other, still throwing food and getting muckier by the minute. They were making a huge mess of Phlox's precious sickbay, and only hoped their shouts were not disturbing his animals… the osmotic eel or the Pyrithian bat.

The security team soon arrived and got the quartet under control, helping to clean up, but making the trouble makers do most of it.

Peter sighed once the last bit of food was cleared up. "Captain Archer will never believe us when we tell him what happened."

"I know… that's why I've got the cameras in here recording everything. I'm not taking any chances."

The Ensign smiled. "Good idea… proof."

The four children sat down, looking thoroughly bored. Their fun had been spoiled and now they had nothing entertaining to do. The got changed into clean clothes after having baths. They had been separated and were sitting in different corners, unable to see anyone else. Peter had confiscated the ship for the time being, hiding it in one of the many cupboards.

Phlox continued to check on them and once he'd felt they'd had enough punishment he let them be together, finding a game they could all play together nicely… and more importantly, quietly.


	6. Noisy Little Things

Phlox sighed heavily

Phlox sighed heavily. He'd finally managed to get the four three-year-olds to settle down watching a film, a classic Disney movie "The Little Mermaid". They were all terrors at this age, but in particular it was John and Trip who were the biggest miscreants of the group; small fights, tears and tantrums happened a lot, so he was thankful Peter was there to help sort things out between them all. At least finding games to keep them entertained wasn't a problem.

Hide and seek was the most popular as often it took Peter and Phlox ages to find them, unless Trip's regular giggling led them right to him, sometimes he had Hoshi hiding with him. It was also a nice quiet relaxing game and once or twice the children had been found napping in their hiding spots, thankfully without regressing any further.

Malcolm was usually the hardest to find. He managed to remain so quiet, and hide in small places that the two adults wouldn't think of looking.

At least Hoshi was quiet most of the time. She was quite a shy little girl, rarely spoke. But she was always happy when Travis came down to visit her. Now and then Phlox would allow the space boomer to take her out of sickbay so the boys, particularly Malcolm, weren't annoying her. It was surprising at how when they were teenagers they had been in love, and now they disliked each other. Of course her allowed out made the troublesome boys jealous and that's what started up the tantrums.

"Not fair!" They would wail, tears streaming down their faces. "I wanna go out!"

It made Phlox's job nearly impossible… Instead of the crew coming to him, he was having to make house calls just so that patients wouldn't have to listen to children. Only T'Pol and Travis were brave enough to face them if they had to.

When they weren't throwing wobblers or screaming their heads off, they were very cute little children and they often got visits from other members of the crew.

Then of course there was feeding time, and at this age, they were a lot fussier about what they had in front of them on their plate.

"Stop being so fussy, and eat up." Peter sighed as he tried to get John to eat his vegetables.

"No!" He pushed his plate away from him, pouting. "Don't like vegtables. They yucky!"

Peter put on a bit of a smile. "Vegetables are good for you, they'll make you grow up to be big and strong."

"Don't wanna be big and stwong. Me wanna stay ikkle for ever!"

"Come on John, eat them… or after dinner you'll have to sit in the corner and you won't be allowed to play with the others." Phlox said and got a bark of agreement from Porthos who was sitting close to his mini-master.

"Ok." John sighed and ate a slice of carrot. While they weren't looking he began to feed his greens to Porthos, who ate them up happily.

"Phlox!" Trip wailed when he saw what John was doing. "John's not eating them! He's giving them to the doggy!"

"Am not! Don't lie Charles!" John glared at Trip, annoyed that he had got him in trouble already.

"Are too!" Trip returned, glaring back at John and ate the last of his cauliflower.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!" John was getting close to tears, hating that his friend was calling him a lair. Hoshi and Malcolm had done the sensible thing by staying out of it and quiet.

"Are too!"

"Please, be quiet, both of you!" Peter said as he stood behind John, watching as Porthos licked his lips. "Charles, Hoshi, Malcolm, have you had enough to eat?"

"Yes." They nodded in unison.

"Then you can go off and play." They got up and John tried to join them before a large hand clamped on his little shoulder. "Not you John." He put a warning tone on his voice and John got back in his seat.

Phlox turned to look at him. "Porthos, come… I have cheese." Porthos barked and trotted over to Phlox, waiting for his cheese. "Eat your vegetables, John." Phlox warned and watched as John had no other choice but to eat the rest of his food.

Porthos jumped up and snatched the lump of cheddar out of Phlox's hand. "Ow! Porthos!" The children just laughed at how funny the dog was. They found him so fascinating, and fun to play with, and he was so gentle with them all.

"I hate you, Charles." He muttered.

"You should have done what you were told to." He replied, trying to make out he was a goody-two-shoes.

Peter moved to Phlox and whispered in his ear. "I hope we get back to Aurel soon… I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"And I don't know how much further they can regress." Phlox sighed and once John had finished his lunch he got up and went to play with the others. They sat down quietly for about half an hour, singing nursery rhymes until they decided it was time for a new game. Unfortunately for the two adults, they kids had decided to play 'Tag', and as soon as they began running, they began to scream, and Malcolm was 'It'.

"I don't know if I could stand it if they all turned into babies…. I'd be embarrassed to have to change their nappies!"

"So would I."

They sighed in unison and sat down as they tried to keep their eyes on the four of them.


	7. Runaway Trip

"Bridge to sickbay

"Bridge to sickbay." Came T'Pol's voice over the intercom.

The doctor moved over to the panel and hit the button. Wails could be hear din the background as the young children were being forced to have a bath. "Phlox here. Go ahead."

T'Pol winced slightly when she heard the screams from sickbay. "We have arrived in orbit of Aurel."

Phlox sighed in relief. Two days trying to keep the four of them awake, since John's feeding Porthos veggie dilemma, had been one hell of a task. "That's great! Have you contacted them?"

"It took some time as Hoshi hadn't fully programmed their language into the translator, but yes. They also know what the problem is. Bring the children down to launch bay one as soon as you can."

"Acknowledged. I'll get them settled first." He sighed and glanced back at Peter who was having to multi-task, and making a mess of it. He'd find out the reason for their regression later, but for now, getting them back to their proper selves was the priority.

"Natenga homal." Leonal Foleco greeted the away team as they climbed out of the pod.

The little kids were brought out, Peter having to hold John and Trip apart as they had been fighting about who was to get out first. Both were trying they hardest to get away from his grip, but it was too tight and they were failing miserably. Travis had three-year-old Hoshi in his arms and Phlox was carrying a nine month old Malcolm Reed.

"Oh my goodness!" Leonal said in surprise at seeing them.

"We trust you can help them?" T'Pol said… it was obvious that the smells of very young human children got to the sensitive nose of the Vulcan… particularly that of Malcolm's nappies.

Leonal nodded her head. "We have the anti-dote" She turned her head as a male came up and stood beside her. "Natenga, Dralan." She acknowledged him with a slight bow of her head.

"Natenga, Leonal." The male said and they looked at the new comers.

"So it is a virus?" Phlox questioned.

Leonal shook her head. "No… it's a chemical found in the fruits we use to make yurum… a drink your away team said to be similar to 'wine'."

"You gave them a life threatening chemical intentionally?" T'Pol was now a bit wary about these Aurellians.

"Oh no!" Dralan quickly defended themselves. "We thought the concentration of chemical to water would be too low for the regression to happen to your crew. Obviously your bodies and metabolisms are more susceptible to the chemical than we first thought."

"The brew we gave your crew is a much weaker one than we drink ourselves." Leonal explained as more Aurellians gathered around to see the guests… and the children. "We did scan your people before offering the drink to them. We thought it was safe."

"Please accept our deepest applogies." Dralan was trying to keep the peace between them and the humans.

T'Pol nodded her head, satisfied with the explanations. "As long as our crew are returned to their original selves, then it will be forgotten… by me. I am unsure as to how the Captain will take it.

All the Aurellians nodded their heads in agreement. "That is understandable." Leonal agreed.

Trip finally managed to get out of Peter's grip and began to run off. He wanted to explore.

"Trip!" Peter shouted as he let go of John and began to ran after the little boy.

T'Pol quickly grabbed John before he had the chance to run off. He kicked and screamed as he was restrained by another person. He wanted to explore too. "Lemme go!" he shouted, only to have T'Pol tighten her grip till he was finally in her arms where she keep a better hold on him. "I wanna play wiv Charles!"

"This is no time for playing, John." She spoke softly as she tried to calm him down.

All eyes were now watching the running three-year-old as he dashed around fountains, under benches, behind bushes and trees, and also on the chaser, Ensign Watson who stumbled as he tried to catch Trip.

Trip giggled as he kept running, for such a small boy he sure did seem to have a lot of stamina. "Trip!" Peter kept calling as he tried to catch him, but kept missing. "Get back here right now or there'll be no pecan pie for you when we get back to Enterprise!"

Even the mention of the engineer's favourite pudding didn't seem to stop him and it was several minutes before Peter walked back o the rest of the group carrying Trip under his arm. He looked at Leonal. "I am begging you! Turn them back now!" He'd nearly had enough of trying to look after them and had hardly had any sleep.

Leonal nodded her head. "It will be done… I have asked a couple of friends to calculate how much you will need… they should have the anti-dote in about two hours."

Still with Trip under his arms, Peter slouched onto a bench, putting the boy in his lap as he did so. Two hours was going to be a long time for the man.


	8. At Last!

**A/N: I am so sorry this has taken so long to come out… I had writers block for a bit, then I was busy with other things.**

The away team had gathered in one of the small buildings close to where the antidote was being cooked up. Malcolm was sound asleep in Phlox's arms and John was happily sitting on Travis' lap.

Hoshi and Trip were sitting on the floor, playing with a traditional Aurellian toy for children of their age. It was a strange looking contraption, and what the two youngsters had to do was to get two hoops from one end of a board to the other, without letting go of it, each child had one hoop to move. Dralan had taken up the duty of looking after them and helping them understand the game. A puzzle to help build up their minds.

Standing near a window, Peter was watching out, looking at the buildings. He was intrigued by their strong purple colour, and several implements inside the building were the same purple. "What makes the purple colour?" He queried, turning to look at Leonal, trying to stifle a yawn.

She smiled slightly at the man. "It's the mineral we mine, used in a lot of construction. It is called qwatekol and is of high durability. It's naturally purple in colour, we never try to hide it as it makes Aurel very different from any other colony."

The door opened and in walked two women. "Leonal, the antidote." She announced as passed a small wooden box to her. Opening the lid to reveal several triangular glass vials filled with a green liquid."

"Excellent." She smiled and took the box from them, approaching T'Pol. "Here you are. This will return the four of them back to their correct age. It will take a few days before they are fully transformed again. And they will have no memories of this second childhood, but as soon as they are of correct age they will know everything that happened up until they regressed. One full vial per child every twelve hours for three days. They will not have reached proper age by then, but there will be enough antidote left in their system to return them properly."

"Thank you." T'Pol looked at the weary away team, particularly Ensign Watson. The young man hadn't showered or shaved the last couple of days.

"So, we still have a few more days of taking care of these little terrors?" Peter asked with a grim sigh, not looking forward to it.

"If you prefer, Ensign, I can assign someone else to the task of taking care of them." The Vulcan offered. She herself was a little fed up of the energy and the trouble the four of them had caused.

Pete just shook his head and waved his arm. "No, no…. I think I can cope just a couple more days." He sighed. He didn't want to put anyone else through what he had had to endure. "I'll manage."

T'Pol nodded. "I believe that when this is over, I shall recommend to Captain Archer that you are given several days off to rest." Ensign Watson just smiled at her. "We should return to our ship."

Leonal nodded and stepped to the door, opening it. "Please, I would be happy if your ship remained in orbit, not knowing your physiology fully I would hate that something went wrong and you were too far away."

Phlox nodded. "That seems like an excellent idea, wouldn't you agree, T'Pol? As I'm sure you would say, very logical?" She grinned and watched as T'Pol nodded.

"Indeed. We shall remain in orbit."

They were escorted back up to the shuttlepod and were soon back on Enterprise. Sitting the children on the floor, except for Malcolm, they brought out the vials, in an attempt to give them their first dose.

"No!" Trip protested. "I don't want no icky green stuff!" And looked away folding his arms over his chest and keeping his mouth shut.

"C'mon, Trip." Peter attempted to persuade the little boy. "Green stuff is good for you. It'll make you big and strong, like me."

Carefully Trip turned to look at the man. He liked the idea of being big and strong, that much was evident. He reached forward and picked up the vial, pulling out the stopper and took a small taste of the green liquid. John and Hoshi did the same as T'Pol bottle-fed the potion to Malcolm who drank it happily.

In unison, the trio pulled disgusted faces pushing the vials away from them. "Yuck!" They groaned "Yuck, yuck, yuck! It's horwibble!"

Travis sighed and ran a hand down his tired face. He looked at Peter. "So, what do we do now? They'll never grow to be big and strong will they?"

"Yuck! Nofing dat tastes dat bad can be good for you." John said and stood up. "Come on Charles…. Let's play." It was obvious that even at this age, John was a leader.

Hoshi jumped up and ran behind a counter. With a childish evil laugh, John started to chase his two friends in a game of tag. Trip and Hoshi screaming began to make little Malcolm cry and wail as he wanted his sleep. He'd had his medicine.

"Malcolm drank his. He'll grow up to be big and strong." T'Pol tried to shout over the screams of the children. They stopped running and looked at her. Glad that the screams had stopped, Malcolm ceased his crying and snuggled up to sleep in T'Pol's arms. "Be good children, and drink yours." Her voice was calm and soothing. "And once you've had them you can have some chocolate to take away the bad taste."

Looking at each other they nodded and sat down. Picking up the vials they put them to their lips and drank. Their faces screwed up with disgust as they tried to ignore the taste. Once that was done, they were given their chocolate. Not long after that, they went to sleep, giving the adults a change for a breather and a rest for themselves.

"I'll be glad when this is all over." Travis sighed as he slumped in a chair.

"Agreed" Peter nodded, repeating Travis' action of slumping in a chair, but for him he just had to slump on the floor, too tired to find a seat. Snoring from the two men soon filled sickbay as they finally got some sleep.

Phlox watched as for one the four children sat in a circle and played a quiet game. They were all the same ago now, after two days of taking the antidote… they were eight, and a lot easier to control, and to find good quiet games. Porthos was sitting close to his young master. Even though John looked completely different, Porthos still knew who it was… most likely due to scents.

Peter casually strolled into sickbay, his eyes watching them, relief plastered all over his face that they were being quiet.

The Denobulan smiled at the visitor. "Ensign, what can I do for you?"

"Nothing." Peter shook his head. "Just came to see how they were doing."

"They're doing pretty well." He looked at a computer screen and his smile disappeared. "Oh dear."

Watson watched Phlox and nodded his head. "Medicine time? I can stay and help if you'd like." His leaned closer to whisper to him. "I brought the chocolate."

"Excellent." He smiled back and moved to the counter where the box of vials was being kept. "Line up, it's time for your medicine." He called.

To Peter's amazement all four of them came over without making a fuss, but their little faces showed they were not pleased.

The vials were handed out and quickly drunk down. Pleased with their behaviour, their treat was handed out and they ate it happily.

"Peter." Trip moved over to the man. "Will you play with us?"

With permission from T'Pol and being accompanied by a member of security and a member of Engineering, Peter and Phlox took them down to the cargo bay where they were able to play in a new environment. Phlox still kept the security cameras filming to that they could be shown exactly what happened to them.


	9. More, Uh Oh!

Eighteen… the hormonal teenagers were back and the three boys were constantly having contests to see who should get the girl, Hoshi, who seemed to be loving the attention she was getting. Most of the time she just ignored their silly comments, and at least now they were allowed to roam most of the ship. Some areas were still off limits to them, but at least they could get away from each other. John and Trip were back in their own quarters, however Hoshi and Malcolm had been assigned guest quarters as they normally shared a room.

It had been two days since they had been instructed to stop taking the antidote, and they had been very grateful for that. No more disgusting tasting green liquid, but of course that also meant no more chpocolate treats afterwards.

Hoshi, indeed, was a very beautiful girl at this age. Long black hair that went down to her waist, small brown eyes that smiled sweetly at most people. But she wasn't fooled by the boys constant nagging. If she wanted to be with one of them, it would be under her own choice… and the way she was, she was in the mood to be with one of them.

Sitting in guests quarters was so much more relaxing for the young woman. No more spooky noises from Phlox's pets. No more snoring from the boys or Travis and Peter.

There was a chime at the door and she stood up to answer it. She smiled at the young man that stood the other side and pulled him into the small room, planting a strong and passionate kiss on his lips. "I'm so glad you came." She smiled.

"I've been wanting to be alone with you for ages." The man replied, kissing her back. His hands wandering over her body and began to undress her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers twirling locks of his hair. "Have you indeed?" She grinned, seductively.

"Oh yeah." The man nodded with a soft smile.

Together, Trip and Hoshi walked into sickbay for a check up, the other two boys were already there, being examined by the Denobulan.

"I hope you're going to keep that eel thing away from me." Malcolm said as he let Phlox scan him. "Hi guys." He waved at Hoshi and Trip, the pair returned the wave.

"You're afraid of a little eel?" John looked at Malcolm and laughed slightly.

Putting the scanner down Phlox sighed slightly. "My osmotic eel will not hurt you, she is here to help heal if the needs be." He picked up the scanner again and looked at the results. "Thank you Malcolm." He turned and looked at the other two. "Hoshi, you're next."

"Yes, Doctor." She smiled sweetly and hoped onto the bed next to John. Her eyes wandered to Trip and she grinned at him. The twinkle of mischeviousness and a hint of love towards the engineer in her eyes.

Slipping off the bed and heading for the door, young Mr Reed turned to look at Hoshi. "Want to join me for lunch, Hoshi?"

The young Japanese shook her head. "Sorry, Malcolm, I've already agreed to have lunch with Trip…. Maybe tomorrow."

Malcolm's expression dropped at the rejection of his lunch invitation. He liked her a lot. "Oh… Ok… I'll, see you later?"

Hoshi nodded her head. "Yeah, later."

Phlox listened and watched intently. He could tell what was going on, but it was frightening that when they had been regressing, it had been Reed and Sato, but this time she was with Trip. Very confusing how the feelings for the two men were different each time. Perhaps it was just a side effect of the chemical.

"Phlox, would you hurry this up, please? T'Pol wants me on the bridge in five minutes." John asked with a sigh, frustrated and being kept there.

"Patience, John. These tests are important." Phlox replied, patting the young man on the shoulder. "It should only take a couple more minutes, and T'Pol knows that." He began to scan Hoshi, as he did he noticed there was something wrong with her clothes. His bright blue eyes quickly noticed that she had missed a button on her shirt. "Um, Hoshi." He began. "We're you in a rush to get dressed?" His finger pointed to his own chest indicating where the missed button was on her light green shirt. John watched Phlox then looked at Hoshi.

She looked at him, puzzled. "Huh?" After watching the doctor she looked at her clothing, realising what he was talking about. Her head snapped up to look at Trip and she glared at the grinning boy. Grabbing the pillow from the bio bed she hurled it at him with quite a force.

Caught off guard, the pillow slamed into his face, causing him to lean back and nearly loose his balance.

John claped his hands ogether, applauding the woman. "Nice aim!"

Trips arms reaching up to grab the soft projectile before it fell on the floor. He looked at her and laughed. "Sorry, Hoshi." He appologised and watched as the young woman sorted out her clothing.

"Watch your back, Trip… Revenge is sweet." She grinned at him, a slight hint of evilness within the grin and eyes.

"Nah, you wouldn't do anything to me." He kept on laughing, but soon stopped when her face didn't change. "Would ya?" The glare remained on Hoshi face. Clearing his throat, Trip replaced the pillow back on the bed and sat on a different bed behind her, waiting patiently for his turn.

John leaned towards Hoshi, whispering to her. "I warned you that Trip was a tricky one."

Side glancing at John she smiled softly. "And how would you know that I like him?"

Not having an answer for that John sat up straight and just waited till he was dismissed. Hoshi kept the smile on her face. She did like Trip, she was just playing games with John.

Phlox had not told the foursome that everything they did in sickbay was being recorded, but he knew that they would never believe him if he just told them all these things without any evidence, especially Trip. John was more likely to believe some of the things than the others, the captain had a much more open mind.

A small yip from the beagle told John that the canine was hungry. "You got any cheese, Phlox?" He asked and with a smile, Phlox moved to a cupboard and picked up two cubes of cheddar.

"There you go." He dropped them into John's hands. Mr Archer knelt down on the floor, feeding his pet the yellow cubes, petting Porthos as he did. "You can go as well… I've finished with you."

"Thanks, doc. Come on boy, come on." John called the dog and the pair ran out and along the corridor.


	10. Normal at last, or are they?

Normal at last... or are they?

* * *

Two more days had passed and at long last, the foursome had returned to their rightful ages. However each did have a few questions to ask the good Doctor, as it was only that morning hey had gotten their memories back of who they were and where they were. The only problem was that every time they passed their fellow crew mates, the questions of "How are you feeling today?" and "Do you remember anything yet?"

Sitting on chairs in sickbay, T'Pol, Peter and Travis were seated behind the four patients, all were sitting facing a screen. Phlox was standing up in front of them, ready to being the explanations.

"Doc... would you please tell us why we're here?" Trip asked, folding his arms over his chest.

The Denobulan nodded his head, "As you are no doubt aware, you recently lost your memories due a drug on Aurel."

The Armoury officer raised an eyebrow. "We were drugged? Were they trying to experiment on us or something?"

"Oh no." Phlox shook his head. "Nothing so evil. No... their wine contains a certain chemical that doesn't affect their bodies, but in enough quantity it affected yours."

"In what kind of way?" John finally spoke up after being so quiet.

"It reversed the ageing affect of all four of you, regressing you back to toddlers... but in the case of Mr Reed, right back to an infant."

"By accident of course. Miss Leonal stated that they had scanned you when you went down to ascertain which strength of wine to give you to prevent this from happening." T'Pol added.

The four just looked blankly at the Doctor, unsure what to make of what they were hearing.

Peter leaned forward. "And believe me, you were all a pain to handle at that age." He sat back as Hoshi and Trip turned their heads to look at him.

"Phlox..." John stood up and moved to him. "I checked the computer... we went down to Aurel just over a week ago... and you're telling us that we turned into children and back in a short period of time?"

Nodding his head he pointed to the Captain's chair. "I knew you wouldn't believe me, so while the four of you were in here, I had the security cameras record everything that you did, so that there would be proof."

"This I gotta see." Trip was definitely interested. "I always wanted to know how much of a pain Malcolm was as a child." He grinned as he looked at his friend, earning himself a hostile glare from Mr Reed.

"If you would return to your seat, Captain, I can begin the playback." Phlox pointed at the chair again. Reluctantly John looked at his four companions, examining their faces to see what their reaction was, as from the looks of it, they wanted to see this. He sat back in his chair and folded his hands in his lap.

With the Captain now seated he moved closer to the screen. "Ensign Watson, would you please turn off the lights." The man in question nodded and pressed the button to throw the room into darkness.

"Where's popcorn when you need it?" Trip smiled, leaning further back in his chair to enjoy the movie like experience.

Travis smiled and leaned forward this time. "It's best you don't have anything that you could choke on while laughing." This caused all four heads to look at the helmsman as he sat back and looked at Peter, the two men grinning.

They all looked at the screen when they began to hear voices.

* * *

_"Give it back, right this minute, Malcolm!" Trip shouted, pouncing for his 'friend' but missed and landed heavily on the floor close to T'Pol's feet. His eyes looked at Malcolm and he glared at him._

_"Why?" Malcolm called over and giggled at the fact that Trip couldn't catch him, no matter how hard the boy tried._

_"Because it's mine! John gave it to me, not you!" He got back to his feet and the chase started again._

_

* * *

_

The four of then really watching recordings of themselves as they were children. John and Hoshi couldn't help but laugh at the cuteness of Trip and Malcolm.

"Even as a child Leiutenant Reed is good at combat!" Hoshi exclaimed, laughing.

Trip and Malcolm looked at each other with worry, then in unison looked over their shoulders at a sniggering pair of Ensigns.

* * *

_"Phlox!" Malcolm whined, pushing his plate away. "Trip's peaed on my plate!" He wailed loudly._

_Phlox sat looking shocked, not turning to look at the children for fear of what he would see. "Really, Trip. Surely you could have made it to the bathroom."_

_"I hate peas! And they're on my plate!" Malcolm whined some more, picking them off and flicking them at Hoshi, who just glared at him._

_

* * *

_

More laughter from Hoshi and John as they watched the recordings. "Malcolm... I thought you ate anything that was given to you?" John queried.

The man shifted in his chair uncomfortably, this was most embarrassing to him. "Yes well... people do change, sir." He replied.

Of course, Trip was not too pleased with this. It was now his turn to be embarrassed by his own actions... and words. "I can't believe you said that, Malcolm."

"Neither can I." He laughed a little bit. "But that was funny... the look on the Doctor's face, thinking you had actually used my plate as the toilet!" They laughed some more.

Phlox sighed a little bit, at least they all seemed to be accepting it and taking their actions well, finding it all very amusing. To him it was something he would rather forget. At once he had shown them everything he would be able to forget it all and get back to a normal routine without children screaming every ten minutes. He closed his eyes, trying to remember what silence sounded like.

* * *

_"Good shot, John!" Malcolm grinned, clapping slightly._

_"Thanks, Malcolm." With a grin John raised his voice, his hand already full of mashed potato. "Food fight!" He declared and all four kids began to throw their food at everyone, laughing hard._

_"Children! Stop it at once!" Phlox raised his voice, but the ten-year olds and Hoshi paid no attention to him._

_

* * *

_

The laughter continued from all four this time as they watched the food fight. Malcolm just had to laugh, and it was getting interesting, a food fight started by the most senior officer on board the ship. He'd gotten over the initial embarrassment and could now see passed that and through to the humour of the situation.

"I would never have expected the Captain to start a food fight!" Hoshi laughed. "Phlox, I can't believe you had to put up with that."

Phlox nodded his head. "It wasn't easy, but I did have some good help from Ensigns Mayweather and Watson, I couldn't have done it without them."

They continued watching for several more minutes, their laughter paused as they watched the nice quiet games of hide and seek, and only a few giggles as they watched John feeding Porthos. And then came the 'aww' s from three of them as they saw Malcolm as a baby.

"Is that what I looked like? Such an ugly baby." Malcolm commented about himself, a slight look of disgust on his face at seeing himself like that.

"I think you look cute." Hoshi grinned.

The watching carried on for a couple more hours. And at long last it was over. They had seen everything there was to see.

Captain Archer stood up to address the rest of his crew, and to get rid of the numb feeling in his backside from having been sat for so long. "I believe we should return to Aurel and let them know that we're back to ourselves."

The science officer rose from her seat and stood next to the Captain. "We are still in orbit of Aurel, and have been ever since we retrieved the antidote from them. We thought it best in case there were any problems with the medication, and so that once you had been returned to normal, you could see them."

John smiled and patted T'Pol's shoulder. He then turned to Phlox. "I assume there are no more tests you need to do on us?" Phlox simply shook his head.

"There's no time like the present." Trip said as he stood up and began to head for the door, turning his head to see who was following. "Who knows, maybe we could even bring a bottle of it back and give some to T'Pol." He grinned, causing everyone but Phlox and T'Pol to laugh.

"I'm sure Phlox has had enough of regressing people to last him a lifetime." John glanced at the good Doctor.

"Indeed I have, Captain." He nodded and watched as everyone filed out of sickbay, Trip turned the lights back on as he opened the door.

Stacking the chairs away, the Denobulan sighed slightly and paused, listening to the sound of silence. At long last, no children, no babies, no complaints. Just silence, and it was music to his ears.

* * *

The meeting with the Aurellians went well and the away team left having made a good relationship with them. Captain Archer and the others had been very understanding about the mishap and promised to never let it get between them. It was all just a misunderstanding. Trip did managed to get a couple of bottles as it had been very tasty stuff, the Aurellians of course made sure to provide them with the brew containing the least possible amount of chemical, as well as some antidote, just in case. Malcolm and John were a little hesitant about having it on board, and made Trip promise to only drink it on really special occasions.

* * *

Several weeks passed before Hoshi made a surprise visit to sickbay. She sat on a bio bed as Phlox moved over to her. "Hoshi? What seems to be the matter?" He questioned as he picked up his scanner ready if he needed it.

The young woman shook her head. "I'm not sure exactly, but the last few days, I have been throwing up a little." She explained, watching the Doctor's expression, but it remained blank, not helping her at all.

He turned on the scanner and hovered it over her body a couple of times. He looked at the readings and then at Hoshi.

She watched him, "Well?" She asked, tilting her head to the side a little.

"It would appear you're suffering from morning sickness." He replied.

"What?" She looked at him in shock and also confusion.

"You're two months pregnant."

* * *

The End

* * *

A/N: *Evil grin* And now I can imagine you all going. "What! You can't end it there, who's the father!"... I'm just going to have to leave it to your imaginations... as I'm sure some of you would prefer it to be Malcolm and some of you prefer it to be Trip... so as not to be biased, it shall remain a complete mystery.

Don't you just love endings like that?

I do apologise for how long it took for this final chapter to appear... but just after I published chapter 9, my computer died and I had to get a new one, and because I lost everything I just didn't have the motivation to write for a while... but now I am back.


End file.
